Carl Schurz (1829-1906)

Carl Schurz was a journalist, statesman and soldier who became a leader of German-Americans in the 19th century. He was involved in the German revolutionary movement and immigrated to the United States in 1852. Schurz became active in Republican politics and supported Lincoln and the antislavery movement. Lincoln appointed him U.S. minister to Spain (1861-1862). Schurz returned to serve in the Civil War as a brigadier general of volunteers, and then major general of the XI Corps. He was elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri (1869-1871; 1871-1875). President Rutherford Hayes appointed him to be secretary of the interior (1877-1881). Schurz also had an active career as a journalist in the German-language press; as a contributor to Harpers Weekly (1892-1898) and as editor of the New York Evening Post (1881-1884).